Sliding door and hardware therefor



March 31, 1953 P. M. HALEY 2,532,926

SLIDING DOOR AND HARDWARE THEREFOR Filed Aug. 14, 1950 2 $HEETS-SHEET 2 ///A J///////// //A /////,//////////A///// AWA I I 1 Q I S I '42 5 I I g I JNVENTOR. PA TR/ck M. HALE) BY 1 g Patented Mar. 31, 1953 SLIDING DOOR AND HARDWARE THEREFOR Patrick Morgan Haley, Duluth, Minn assignor to Dowlong Manufacturing Co., Lafayette, Calif., a. corporation of California Application August 14, 1950, Serial No. 179,203

4 Claims. 1

This invention relates to an improvement in sliding doors.

One problem solved by the present invention is how to construct a fully removable sliding door. Heretofore sliding doors have been'irremovable. Once they were installed they were there to stay. Subsequent adjustment could be made only by ripping out the wall to get at the machinery. If a roller jumped the track, as happened with some doors, or if a part wore out or sheared off, the wall had to be torn out to make repairs.

Another problem solved by the present invention is that of getting the door to hang straight so that it may move in its guides without any binding friction. Heretofore the brackets from which the cantilever arms were hung were liable to be installed on a slight tilt. This happened whenever the Wood screw that held the bracket was put in slightly crooked. When the cantilever bars would hang at an angle from the bracket, they would bind against the guides, and the door became difficult t open and to close.

The present invention has solved these problems. The cantilever for its removable sliding doorhas a novel type of support member secured tothe upper end of one of its cross-arms. This support member fits removably in a slot in a bracket that is secured to the wall inside the pocket at its innermost end. When the support member is lifted out of the slot, the door and its entire cantilever mechanism may be removed. A novel feature of the support member is that it includes a pair of eccentric bearings that are selfadjusting for positioning the door vertically, even when the bracket tilts.

1 Various objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment. In accordance with United States revised statutes 4888, this embodiment is described in detail, but it is not intended thereby to narrowly limit the claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of a door embodying the. principles of my invention, most of the wall around one side of the pocket being removed'to show the cantilever with more clarity. The removable jamb is also removed, and thedoor is shown in its installation orremoval position. The dotted lines at the left of the figure show the cantilever and the edge of the door in its fully retracted position. H

s Fig. 2 is a view in section along the line 22 of Fig. l. The removable jamb is shown in place, and the door-is shown in its closed or extended position.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view in plan of the roller and its track at the lower left-handcorner of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a view in perspective of the upper left hand portion of Fig. 1, showing the upper portion of one cross arm with its supporting bearing removed from the open-ended slot of the bracket which normally supports it.

.Fig. 5 is a view in section of the bearing and bracket of Fig. 4, as it will appear when the bracket is installed in perfect vertical alignment.

Fig. 6 is a view in side elevation looking at Fig. 5 from the left.

Fig. 7 is a view in side elevation looking at Fig. 5 from the right.

Fig. 8 is a view in section similar to Fig. 5, but showing the bracket installed out of line but with the self-adjusting bearing in position to compensate for the misalignment so that the cantilever and the door hang vertically true.

Fig. 9 is a view in side elevation looking at Fig. 8 from the left.

Fig. 10 is a view in side elevation looking at Fig. 8 from the right.

Fig. 11 is an exploded view in perspective of the bearing that supports the cantilever bar.

Figs. 1 and 2 show a door I0 adapted to close an opening II or to retract into a pocket l2 between two Walls 13 and I4, the walls being com- 7 pl'eted after the installation of the door. The door frame comprises a cripple l5 at the rear of the pocket I2, 2. jamb i6 across the opening ll from the pocket I2, and a header I! supported over the cripple I5 and jamb It.

The jamb l6 includes a channel 20 covered over in the finished doorway by the removable stop member 2! (see Fig. 2). However, when the door is being installed, adjusted, or removed, the element 2| is left off or removed so that part of the door [0 can he slid over into the channel 20 (Fig. l and Fig. 2, dotted lines). In this position the rear edge 22 of the door In is out of the pocket l2 and is accessible for adjustment or removal. When the stop 21 is in place again the door does not move out far enough for the mechanism to show. This removable jamb thus makes possible adjustment of thedoor ll! after installation.

Preferably guides 25 are installed along the floor of the pocket l2, and similar guides 26' are provided beneath the header IT in the pocket.

The purpose of the guides 25 and 26 is to hold the L door ID to a straight path inside the pocket 12.

Where there are vertical studs 21 in the pocket,

3 prevent the door from rubbing against the studs 21.

Runners or tracks are secured adjacent the lower ends of the cripple l5 and the rear edge 22 of the door l0. These runners or tracks may either comprise grooved channels 3|! and 3|, as shown in Fig. 1, or projecting rails 32, as shown in Fig.

The cantilever comprises two crossed arms.35 and 36 pivoted at their center point on a bolt or stud 31. The arm 35 runs from the upper end of the cripple to the lower end of the door I0, and the arm 36 runs from-the lower end of the cripple to the upper end of thedoor. upper end, the arm 36 is pivoted, on a bolt or axle 38, which is held by a bracket 39, fixed to:

the side edge of the door l about 3 or 4 inches below the upper edge. This-bracket 39 is disclosed and claimed in copending application No. 43,375, and makes possible both horizontal and vertical adjustment ofthe door 10 on the bar 36..

A bracket is secured at a similarlocation near the upperend of the cripple l5. (See'Figs. 4. to 10 for details.) The bracket 40 is .U -shaped and hasholes ,4! in itsback edge 42 where Wood screws43mayb'eused to secure it to the cripple 15. The upper edge of .eachv of the side plates or arms and 45.,of the bracket is provided with a slot 46.which. is preferably'vertical and which.

opens through the said edge and is provided with an. arcuatebearing surface, 41 i at its lower end.

The slot receives the cantilever-support bearing.- Thisis mountedon ashort shaft 50 having a knurled portion located off-center (see Fig. 11), The bar v 35-.is perforated, to.v receivethe shaft .50iand engage onthe knurled portion 51. Two bearing members 52jandf53'fit on the shaft 50 for.free rotation on either side of the bar 35. Each member 52iand 5311s, circular but is perforatedfiat 54, considerably off center; Each member also-has-an-innerflanged-portion- 56 and 51 andan outer bearing portion 58, 59; The outer bearing portion 58; 59 rests on-the bearing openings 141. Keepers 55 are held in the grooves 55a ajacentthe outer end of theshaft 50:

Itis obvious that the support-member can'be removed from the bracket 40- by 'simply' lifting the bar 35until'the supportmemberis-out of the .slot', 46. perform still another function. They correct for any inaccuracy in', the-- installation of the bracket 46," as is shown in Figs: 8, 9, and 10. If the bracket 40 is 'tilted'to'one side-or another so At the -lower-end-of each-of the arms 35 and-- 36 are rollers 60 -and6l, which--are adapted to roll alongthe tracks 30 and 3 l. The roller 60 and its'track'30 should be proportioned so that theroller' is'confined-laterally for 'a distance somewhatgreater than themaximum vertical clearance of *the' door, so-that it cannot jumpthe track. Oncethe -angleof swing about the pivot point 41*is "determined; the-depthof the groove is determined byytheiproportionsrof the door.

For example; the; track "30 should" be twice as deep as the possible vertical-swing about the pivot point38, where the distancefrom the roller; 60 tothepivot"point-38 is twice as great as the At its.

However, the eccentric bearings distance from the pivot point 38 to the upper right hand corner of the door. Thus, if the track 36 is grooved (as in Figs. 2 and 5), the groove must be at least as deep as the maximum clearance of the door. If a grooved roller 62 as in Fig. 4 is used, its groove 63 should be correspondingly deep. The roller 6| and runner 3| may be the same as the ro1ler.60 and the runner .30, but the grooves could be: shallower:

To provide exact balance, so that the door will remain stationary in any position to which it is moved, there may be a hook 10 on the arm 35, a hook H on the door edge 22, and a spring I2 between them. By having a chain 13 on one end of the spring .12,- the tension of the spring may be adjusted simply by inserting the proper link of the chain around the hook H.

A door of this type can be moved with finger tip pressure. In order to prevent the rear edge of the door from banging against the cripple when the door is opened by. too much force,,a shock spring '75 maybe-placed adjacent the upper end of the door, to contact the cripple block 16.

It will ,be evident fromthe'above description, that even after the door-is inplace, it maybe. removed by removing'the element 2| from the jamb and sliding the door 10 over into the chan-. nel 20. The;bearing 52, 53' at the'top of thebar may then be lifted out of the slot 46, and the entire door land the cantilever may be removed, because the'roller .60 is notrestrainedby: the track 36. The cantilever may be restored by mating the rollingfillin its track 30 andsliding the bearing52, 53 in slot 46 of the bracket-40; If the bracket 461s out'of line, the cam'shape of the bearings 52, 53will soon adjust themselves so that the bar. 35. hangs vertically. All that need be vdone is to move the door I0 back and forth a few times, and the .cams willslide into their proper place,

Iclaim:

l. A removable slidingdoor .combinationof the type adapted to closean opening and'to slide back into .a pocket to open said opening,, a normany-covered, recessed channel being provided on the opposite sideofsaid opening from said pocket for receiving a portion of the door during adjustment'or removal or installation, said door: combination. including a door; ,a cantilever supporting said door; a bracket installed'inth'e in"- terior end of said pocket, said bracket comprisinga. U-shaped channel 'member'with a pair of aligned'slots recessed from its upper end and terminating in an arcuatebearing' surface;and a supportmember adapted to .besecured to said cantilever and to fit in said slots, said support member including a pair of "cylindrical flanged bearings having'off-center openings therethrough and a shaft rotatable in said openings and secured to said'cantilever, so'that as said door'is operated said cylindrical bearings tendtoassume aposi tion where said openings are 'horizontally'aligned with each other therebymaking said shaft horizontal so that said "cantilever-hangs vertically;

2; A- removable sliding door "including'in'com bination; a -door,- adapted-f to close-an'opening; and to slide backinto a pocket to open sai-d'open ing a cantilever pivoted'to said door'and running on -an opentrack; a recessed'channel provided on-the opposite side of'said opening from-said pocket for receiving the doorduring adjustment slots having open upper ends and closed lower ends providing arcuate bearing surfaces; and a support member adapted to be secured to said cantilever and to flt removably in said slots, said support member including a pair of flanged cylinders having an off-center opening therethrough and a shaft secured to the cantilever and extending through said openings, so that upon continued operation the cylinders tend to assume a position in said bearings where the off-center openings become horizontally aligned.

3. Hardware for sliding doors of the cantilever type adapted to compensate for tilt in their installation so that the door will hang vertically true upon a pair of arcuate pivot bearings, comprising a pair of flanged cylinders having offcenter openings therethrough, and a shaft rotatably supported in said openings and adapted to be secured to the cantilever, whereby said cylinders tend to assume a position on the bearings where the off-center openings lie along a horizontal axis.

4. Hardware for sliding doors of the cantilever type adapted to make the doors removable and to automatically correct any tilt brought about 6 by the installation of said hardware, including in combination a U-shaped bracket having a pair of generally vertical slots recessed into the upper edge of its extending parallel plates, the lower ends of said slots providing a pair of arcuate pivot bearings, a pair of flanged cylinders having offcenter openings therethrough, and a shaft rotatably supported in said openings and adapted to be secured to the cantilever, whereby said cylinders tend to assume a position on the bearings where the oil-center openings lie along a horizontal axis.

PATRICK MORGAN HALEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 330,090 Brickell Nov. 10, 1885 1,267,415 Huckestein May 28, 1918 2,349,084 Findley May 16, 1944 OTHER REFERENCES Building Reporter, article from Architectural Forum of February 1949 (page 158). 

